Update 8: New Year's Goal: Become an "official" Gourmess by August 2010

I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate. --Julia Child

So, the day to COOK finally came. Little did I know it was the day to CUT, TOURNAGE, TAILLAGE, PEEL, over and over again. I used an entire bag of carrots for one dish --and most of the carrot ended up in the "garbage bowl" for stock. I tried all of the different types of taillage or methods of cutting, and got stuck on tournage, which is a fancy way of cutting vegetables into a barrel/faceted shape. That took about 2 hours. After I got it close enough for cooking (will have to practice) I then moved on to the first demonstration: Bouquetière Garniture. It is basically carrots, parsnips, potatoes, pearl onions, green beans and peas, all cooked individually, in different ways, and then put together on the platter, with the artichoke bottoms hollowed out like bowls. That was at 3:30 p.m. EST. I didn't finish until 8:54 p.m. EST. But I did it!

I think I bought the wrong kind of artichokes, because they were tiny compared to the photo in the book. I had to keep rubbing with lemon so they wouldn't discolor (they started to) and, I stabbed myself alot with the chokes a few times. I was annoyed that after spending $4 a piece on them, I had a usable piece the size of a small hamburger. Once I got the "bowls" hollowed out (a grapefruit spoon did well to remove the prickly chokes) I had to keep them in ice water with lemon juice until I was ready for the next step.

In the meantime, I practiced various methods of cooking, such as dans un blanc (for the artichokes --boiled in mixture of lemon juice, oil and flour to keep from taking on color), à l'anglaise (add to salted, boiling water and then drain and shock in ice water), glacer à blanc (glaze with butter and cover/simmer on stovetop), rissolé (boil, brown and roast potatoes) and used about 13 different pots.

But, it looked good, tasted even better (And, my sweet, PATIENT, Chris agreed. He thought it would go nicely with a roast chicken -- next time!), and tomorrow, I attempt Ratatouille...stay tuned!

Awesome! I know I'm on an old post, but I was so happy to find somebody else doing what I'm doing. (You're ahead, though - I'm pacing myself a bit more, and just did the bouquetière garniture tonight after much practice turning vegetables, still so much to improve). I hadn't heard that Julia Child quote, but it's an even funnier coincidence - I bought the book and decided to do this back in April on my 32nd birthday. Keep writing about your adventures, and best of luck finishing by August!

Gourmess Archives

My Motto

About Me

I'm a petite but powerful marketing maven who should have gone to culinary school. Or moved to France. When I'm not at my day job in NYC, I spend most of my time in the kitchen coming up with creative cookery ideas. There is usually a mess involved. (Hence the GourMESS title.)

Cookery Experience

For six months in 2010, I taught myself the French Culinary Institute's official textbook, The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Cuisine, and prepared (and blogged about) every demonstration in the course.

On Making a Mess of Things

“I would far prefer to have things happen as they naturally do, such as the mousse refusing to leave the mold, the potatoes sticking to the skillet, the apple charlotte slowly collapsing. One of the secrets of cooking is to learn to correct something if you can, and bear with it if you cannot.” ― Julia Child